


Slow And Steady (Wins Against Hawk Moth)

by Maidezmaidez



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Aged-up Nino, Alternate Universe - Age Changes, Awesome Nino Lahiffe, Gen, Master Fu trains Nino to be the Guardian, Miraculous Holder Chloé Bourgeois, Miraculous Holder Nino Lahiffe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:34:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25642162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maidezmaidez/pseuds/Maidezmaidez
Summary: Nino Lahiffe: a somewhat average teen with an interesting extracurricular activity. When akuma run a muck way earlier than Master Fu anticipated, he entrusts the city of Paris to fourteen-year-old Nino Lahiffe who gains the miraculous powers of the tortoise. After several years of acting protector of Paris, Nino struggles to find a balance between superheroing and teenagering. Not to mention the public sorta hates him a bit. Destruction, yanno? In confiding to Master Fu about his worries, it is revealed that Nino isn't the one to bring balance to the world, but he is the one to teach them. However, these new heroes are just as young, if not younger than Nino was when he first began. What's a guy to do, huh? Be a part-time babysitter too?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Slow And Steady (Wins Against Hawk Moth)

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy, 
> 
> I've had this fic idea stuck in my head for about a year or two.   
> I gotta get it out there now. 
> 
> but yeah,   
> AU fun time cause I know Nino deserves MORE. 
> 
> and please lemme know if you see any typos.

“Wayzz, Shell Off.”

A green light swept over the young hero as he looked over the city from his rooftop vantage point. It was low enough that he could clear it in a few jumps, but it was too high for any civilian to look up and spot him. That’s how he liked it, considering his mixed reviews. 

None of the damage is caused by him, he swears it. Akumas get out of hand sometimes and cause structural damage out the wazoo. The citizens of Paris are just left to deal with the aftermath, and it’s easier to shift blame onto a figure who is fully aware of the situation, unlike a victim who’s been emotionally manipulated by a super-villain. 

“I do say, Master, the damage caused by the Akuma this time around is far less than it has been! Only that boutique was damaged this time!” 

The hero continued looking upon the scene and at the chunks of asphalt and cobblestone flung about the road. He rolled his shoulders around, stretching out his tired and most likely bruised body. Traffic will definitely be blocked, but it was good that it was only 6:00 am in the morning so the traffic was low. Maybe the cleaning crews will be able to clear it before the morning rush starts up. 

“You know it isn’t your fault, Nino...”

Nino tore his eyes away from the bustling scene to look at his Kwami guide and hearing his name caught him by surprise.

“Yeah, I just...” Nino began, “I wish I could actually do something to prevent all the damage. Or at least make it so that it never happened. People get hurt and-and they— “

“Master Nino, you do everything in your power to protect people when you fight,” Wayzz interrupts Nino and flits in front of his master’s eyes. “Do not blame yourself.”

Nino studies his kwami’s expression, searching for any trace of lying. This, of course, isn’t the first time that he’s had these feelings of doubt and helplessness invade his mind. He doesn’t process them during the day, but they creep up on him once he’s alone.

“Alright, but there has to be a better way than,” Nino gestures down to the street wildly, then sighs, “all this.”

“Perhaps you can talk to Master Fu about this. I’m sure he can give you some insight!”

Nino smirks and looks out into the horizon. 

“Yeah, yeah. I guess I gotta pay him a visit anyway. I need to return this Akuma before school starts.” 

Nino looked down at the captive purple butterfly. The thing fluttered about unable to escape the charm bestowed upon the simple mason jar. Catching these things before they flew off was a bitch. Unfortunately, Nino had a lot of practice. It was definitely preferable to capture them before they multiplied into a huge ass problem. It’s only happened twice to Nino, and it’s partially why the citizens of Paris hate him.   
The sun casted rays that reflected off the glass and into his eyes. Annoyed, Nino looked up and realized that the sun was beginning to rise. He only had an hour or so before he was late. Cool. Fantastic. No going back to sleep for Nino. Curse these damn, early morning akumatizations. Doesn’t Hawkmoth sleep? Ever? At all? 

“Wayzz, you good to go?” Nino brushed back his hair, hanging down in front of his face due to a lack of hair products. He usually keeps his hair pushed back, but someone had to throw a wrench into his morning routine. 

The kwami swallowed the remainder of the matcha cookie Nino keeps in the pocket of his zip-up hoodie.

“I’m good to go!”

“Awesome, little dude. Wayzz, Shell On!”

Nino felt the sweeping power of protection consume him and [hero name] stood in his place. 

Tortugon glanced one last time at the ruined boutique and eyed the ... eclectic clothes strewn about on the road. There was one man who was kneeling at a mass of ripped fabrics. He wailed and wailed and cursed the name of Tortugon.

“Well, it wasn’t like they were good clothes.”

—

Nino’s trip throughout the rooftops was short-lived as he landed in the alleyway behind Master Fu’s massage parlor. Normally, he would’ve run into a lot of civilians, wasting his time, yelling at him, and heckling him about what to do about Hawkmoth. Like he didn’t already know. Thankfully, the early morning meant that very few people were out and about, and the majority was just waking up. Nino should be one of those people, but eh. 

You win some, you lose some. 

Calling off his transformation, Nino absent-mindedly stuck his hand in his pocket to give Wayzz one of his matcha cookies but cursed when he came up empty-handed. 

“Ah shit, sorry, Wayzz.” 

“Do not worry, I’m sure Master Fu already has the kettle running.”

Sure enough, as Nino pushed open the back door to the parlor, Fu was sitting at the low table in the middle of pouring the third cup of tea of three resting on the table.

“Hello there, Nino.” Fu smiled and gestured to the Miracle Jar in Nino’s grasp. “It’s rare to see you up so early.” 

“Tell me about it,” Nino bowed before sitting down at the table, removing his hat, and setting the jar down in front of his Master. Nino slumped over and rested his head on the table. Master Fu took the Miracle Jar to the back of the room to go perform the purification. Usually, Nino took this time to relax before having to go and face the rest of his day, night, whatever. It was nice to rest and close his eyes for a while, but he had to use his time here wisely. 

Nino sat up with a groan and left Wayzz to his own devices as the kwami sipped at his green tea delicately. It wouldn’t be enough to fully charge his kwami, so he’d have to go to the store or bakery to get more matcha to bake into cookies or something. But Wayzz was patient with him like that, even after all this time. 

Nino strode over to the counter where Master Fu was standing. He watched him take the bright red goo from its container and scoop it into the Miracle Jar’s opening. The Akuma tried its best to escape the opening, but the jar prevented anything of malice from exiting. Master Fu closed the container and shook it rapidly. The goo coated the purple Akuma and glowed a bright, light pink. It was always amazing to see, but Nino couldn’t help but feel bad for the butterfly as it got pummeled inside the jar. It seemed inhumane. The glow dissipated from the jar and the sticky goo turned into a dry purple powder and a white butterfly now flew about in the jar.

“It’s not the easiest way, but it’s what we have, young Nino.” Master Fu spoke as if he read Nino’s mind. Master Fu opened the jar and released the butterfly out the open window next to the counter. The powder was dumped into a bag full of the collected powder through the years. Although it was purified malice and probably shouldn’t be used ever again, it did make for great fertilizer. 

“Master Fu, there must be a better way to handle all this,” Nino began, taking the Miracle Jar back from Fu, “I know the important part is purifying the Akumas and finding Hawkmoth to take him down, but the damages to the city—to the people! It’s insane!”

Fu listened to Nino as they made their way back to the low table. Nino had taken over for him as the hero of the city, learning all the ways of being the Guardian and the Turtle. Magic was nothing but a kid’s gimmick to him, but everything changed when Nino met Fu for the first time. The Wugui was an urban legend among the citizens for a couple years, until Hawkmoth’s reign shifted from its years of slumber. Akumas, what once were the proverbial monsters in the closet, became a living nightmare and have since invaded the city for 3 years now. 

“Look, I don’t mean to be ungrateful for all you’ve taught me, but I’m not sure how much longer I can keep this up. I feel like the Akumas are getting stronger—dude, last week, the Eiffel Tower almost fell over. Toppled! What would the people of Paris have done? How many people would have been injured, or worse?” 

Nino now realized he was getting louder as he ranted, with his darker emotions brewing within him. Fu listened to him intently, not showing anything more than his stoic, calm demeanor so he paused, taking a breath, knowing exactly what happens when emotions can get out of hand. 

“There’s gotta be a better hero out there... someone who can fight bad guys and fix everything back to how it should be, not just some—half-assed attempt.” 

The quiet nature of the room took back its rights after Nino finally expelled his frustration. He knows his master well enough that he won’t get a response right away, so Nino took to staring into his mug of tea. A few bits of leaf floated on the surface. God, he could never get the bits out of his mug no matter how hard he tried. Spoons failed him. Fingers failed him. He needs a net of some sort, so those damned floating things wouldn’t escape. 

“Nino.”

He looked up and met Master Fu’s eyes. 

“I thought long and hard about this whole situation as well. How I’ve done things and how you’ve been doing things, they were just countermeasures against the force of Evil brewing in this town.” Fu had shifted his body to face Nino directly. 

“It came earlier than I expected, and the fated heroes were far too young to handle the responsibility of the Ladybug and the Black Cat.”

“The Ladybug and the Black Cat? Are you saying that-“?

“Yes. The Ladybug and the Black Cat are Miraculous as well. They are a few of many other miraculous that I will show you in time. Just as you are the Turtle. They have extraordinary special powers.” 

“Oh.. wait-” Nino ran a hand through his hair, the implications began to really sink in. Holy shit, Nino could feel his muscles tense as he fought the urge to jump up and down and squeal. Master Fu drank from his cup gingerly. 

“Does the- are these heroes-- do they- can they—”

“They have come of age now, yes--”

“Oh, thank God.” Nino sagged in relief. 

“--But they are highly volatile,” Master Fu continued. “The Ladybug and the Black Cat miraculous are extremely powerful. Since the holders will be so young, they will need guidance from a wise, older hero who has experience.”

“They will learn a lot from you, Master.” Nino supplied. He’s already thinking about all the cool superhero poses that they could do as a team as well as the chance to actually sleep for once in his life. 

“It is not me who will be training these heroes, Nino. It will be you who trains the next generation of Miraculous users.”

Nino’s blood ran cold before boiling over rapidly. 

“Fuck,” Nino slammed his hands down onto the table in front of him, “are you for real?” 

Master Fu set down his cup delicately, then took his hand and rested it on top of Nino’s.

“As real as shit, Nino.”

Shit shit shit

Nino hated being late for school. He’s gained the reputation of being this lazy ass who doesn’t turn in his homework half the time amongst his peers and teachers, (he really fucking tries, by the way, see what being a hero does to a growing boy?) but he doesn’t pay attention to that while he’s so desperately weaving his way through the crowds of people on the sidewalks.

“Young Mas-Nino, I apologize for the troubles—we always seem to run out of matcha at inconvenient times, yes?” Wayzz’s voice carried past the brim of Nino’s hat, yellowed eyes peeping out to the path ahead of them. There was no way Nino could transform to hopefully get to school on time. He was totally going to be late. 

“Hah, it’s like I’m fated to be cursed or something, right?” Nino quips. “Maybe for the lunch break, I can sneak off to the store and get you something.” 

Nino glanced at his watch nestled among many bracelets and swore. “Fuuuuu—”

“Decency, young master!” Wayzz scolded him from above. 

“Bro, we’ve got, like, 4 minutes until the first bell rings, let me panic a bit.”

Nino’s fast past walking turned more into a desperate jog as he wove through the crowds of people near a bakery, they must be in line for their breakfast. Nino couldn’t care that he didn’t have time to eat breakfast either, what kind of hero ever does? Nino finally got through the crowds of the bakery line, bumping into people on the way out and reached the crosswalk, the school is so close—

“Hey! Wait! —" 

Several things happened at once that made everything go wrong.  
One: Wayzz, who normally kept his eyes on the path in front of them to prevent Nino from blindly walking into things or people, had retreated into the hat due to the crowd.   
Two: Nino’s frantic pace kept him going to the school, which was only a block away at that point and he was blinded by his urgent need to get there.  
Three: Nino, laminating his horrible, sucky day, failed to notice the little man on the crosswalk signal change into a hand and the red car coming down the road. 

Nino, who had maintained his forward momentum up until this point, was suddenly tugged backward out of the way of the car passing nearly a foot ahead of him. Nino yelped as the backward momentum didn’t cease and he landed unceremoniously on the ground. Nino, dazed by his change of equilibrium, stared dumbfounded up at the sky. How could this day get worse?  
Wait, no he actually didn’t get hit by a car, he almost--

“Hey, are you alright? I’m sorry to make you fall like that, I just didn’t want you to get hit by that car.” A girl’s voice came from above. 

Nino blinked and turned his head to look at his savior; a young girl, probably no older than 14 or 15, bent over him with her arm outstretched. Her hair was a jet black tied in pigtails with baby blue eyes. Nino accepted the hand and was pulled back onto his feet. 

“I—yeah. I’m okay. Thank you for that, dude.” Nino brushed off his rear and went to adjust his hat—His hat’s gone. 

Before the overwhelming panic boiled over within him, the girl produced his hat from behind her back. 

“Here’s your hat back. Again—I’m really sorry. I was on my way to school, and I was running late—but I saw you fight through the crowd and you missed the signal from the crosswalk and I thought—wow, that guy is gonna get hit by a car’ and then I saw the car and I realized ‘wow I don’t want to be right’ and I sorta yanked you back without thinking.” The girl adjusted the straps of her backpack and the box she carried in her hand. She looked at Nino once more thoughtfully and opened her box to reveal green colored macarons.

“Here, for all the trouble I caused you.” She handed him a cookie. “It’s green tea.”

“Oh dude, thank you,” Nino took the sweet in his hand, pocketing it for later.” You’re so rad, uh...” 

“I’m Marinette!”

“Marinette.” Nino grinned and offered her his fist to bump. 

The nice moment between new friends was rudely interrupted by the first bell.

“Shit,” Nino muttered. “Let’s go.” 

Nino and Marinette then made their way to the school, late for the very first day. On the plus side, Nino was alive. On the bad side, Nino was alive. It’s not as if a hero could be replaced overnight, say if he, the only hero preventing Paris from crumbling to dust, was hit by a car, hospitalized, and paralyzed for the rest of his miserable existence. 

As they dashed through the front doors, Nino waved good-bye to Marinette, surfing through the still crowded hall to his homeroom class. Before getting to the doorway, Nino flung the matcha macaron up into his hat carelessly. Hopefully, he didn’t hit Wayzz too hard after hearing the Kwami’s yelp of protest. 

Not even looking at the teacher’s disappointed face, Nino deposited himself in his desk in the front row. How he ended up in the front row after years of sitting in the back is partial punishment as a result of his excessive tardiness and a certain blonde’s persuasion. He has to admit, it’s quite nice to have easy access to the door in case of Akuma emergencies and/or sneak in if he were tardy, like he is now. The teacher wasn’t even doing much of anything and everyone was still mingling around so Nino assumed that it was a free study hall today. Nino took this blessed opportunity to catch up on his previous beauty sleep of approximately 3 hours. 

“Hey, loser.”

Nino felt more than saw his childhood best friend land into the seat next to him for homeroom. Nino was currently resting his head on the desk, and quite frankly, he was too lazy at the moment to even try to open his eyes. Well, not until he heard a scrape against the desk and a warmth resting against his forearm. 

“Did you see on the news? My absolutely favorite boutique was horrendously destroyed! Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”

Nino couldn’t fight the grin that spread across his face but kept his face down. “Chlo, do you even know the name of the shop?”

“Why, of course, I do! How could I not remember the… clothing boutique?”

It was then that Nino opened his eyes and sat up to be greeted by his best friend. All perky, bossy, and rich: Chloe Bourgeois. They were forced to sit together one day during middle school, and nobody can figure how they managed to not rip each other’s throats out within the first week and actually want to sit by each other. Maybe saving someone’s life and then forcing secrecy on said person when they figure out your secret identity because you were young and dumb has some perks. Perks like coffee in the morning when she knows you’ve been run ragged by the latest Akuma. 

“The Clothing Boutique. Sounds… fancy.” Nino grabbed the cup and nodded to Chloe, who returned his gaze after arrogantly looking into the distance. Nino leaned back and took a sip. 

“No but seriously, are you okay?” Chloe leaned back with him, lowering her voice. Nino gave her a pointed look, a signal of utter defeat and exhaustion rolled into one. 

“You know you can call for me, I don’t mind it.”

“I know I can, but it was too goddamn early to even think about that” Nino grumbled, “and it’s still too goddamn early.”

“I saw that you defeated the Akuma well before school even started. Why are you even late?”

“I had to run to Fu’s really quick. It took me longer than expected.”

“Oh, I see,” Chloe glanced down at Nino’s attire. “Is that why you are still in your pajamas?”

“You’re kidding.” Nino’s eyes refused to leave Chloe’s. “Please, please, please be kidding me.”

“Afraid not, flannel.”

Nino groaned as he looked down. Sure enough, there was his red flannel bottoms and shirt, covered up by his hoodie. He was so distracted by everything that went down this morning, he didn’t even process the fact that he should’ve changed out of his PJs. 

“Goddammit,” Nino sunk further into his seat until his vision was level with the desk. He would have to wear this all day until school gets out. 

Then a stack of clothing spontaneously generated on top of his desk. Huh, maybe he is losing his mind. 

“These are for you. I keep a spare for you since this isn’t your first time,” Chloe rubbed Nino’s hair. “Oh gross,” Nino felt her hand retract. 

“You're practically a hobo right now.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”


End file.
